


til the end

by inferablefiend



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Death, F/M, Krogan, Love, Marriage, SO MUCH SADNESS, baby krogan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2018-10-19 11:01:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10638501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inferablefiend/pseuds/inferablefiend
Summary: "You'll stay with me?""Until the very end."- JK Rowling.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Angst prompt from Tumblr.

They say the military will never leave you. And if you try to leave it, it’ll leave you desperate, stranded in the middle of a mental battle of a soldier and who you want to be. They say when you leave the military, it’ll be the right time because you’re on your way to the hospital. Or left in a ditch with a gunshot wound slowly draining the life from you.

I wish I could say they were wrong.

A grey sky is all I could see above me. I feel the warm trickling of blood ooze from my stomach and I know it’s time. My body is sleepy, relaxed even on the metal I lay partially on. The blood, I assume, pools underneath me. As I shift, it feels slick, almost sticky.

I call Garrus to say goodbye.

Not that he would know.

His face pops up into my view. “Shepard, why are you laying on the ground?” is his first question.

I take a moment to memorize his face. The way his scar stretches towards his mandibles. The way his faceplates move when he says my name. How his blue tongue curves over the bumps of his questions. I memorize it all.

But what can I say? My body starts to numb from the wound down. It’s like falling asleep on your foot, but I expect no tingles to rouse my me this time. “A new exercise. My commander wants to see how long I can lay on metal without getting up,” I say lightheartedly. “How is Tikamor?” 

At the sound of her name, the small krogan pushes past Garrus to fill the screen. “Mommy!” she cries, her mouth widening into a smile.

I want to smile back but it’s all I can do to choke back my tears. A hard bump develops just past my uvula. I swallow, attempting to dislodge it before acknowledging her. “Tika, are you being a good girl for daddy?” I ask, throat full of unspent emotion.

“Yes!” I want to brush her image, feel the hard skin under my fingers one last time, but I can’t move my arm. Instead I memorize her too. I see the day we picked her up. How small and vulnerable she looked when Wrex handed her to me. This is what I hold onto.

“She wants to know when you’re coming home. Honestly, so do I.” Garrus distracts Tika with one of her rattlers. She happily chews on it while he devotes his attention to me. 

“I’ll-” A sudden flare of pain stops me mid-sentence. Fire spreads from my stomach up into my chest, my heart skips a beat and I close my eyes. 

“Shepard! What’s wrong?” Garrus’ voice is one of panic. His bright blue eyes scan my face, attempting to look beyond the barrier.

“Just...hit with a rubber bullet. I’ll be fine. Garrus, I love you. I love you so much, you know that right?”

The alarm on his face doesn’t clear. “Yes. Shepard, what’s going on? Where are you? Do you have-”

“Garrus, honey, I love you. Say it back. Please.”

He knows. He knows. It takes more out of me not to scream. Not to rip my throat screaming to the world about how unfair it is. I want to. I want to rip apart the world I lay on, beg any god, some god to give me one last fucking chance. One last fucking chance to hold my family before I leave.

But there is no answer.

“Shepard, I love you. I love you so much. Don’t-”

“I have to go now. I need to.” 

Before he could protest, I cut the comm and destroyed my omni-tool against a sharp edge of metal. 

A ray of sun burst through the gray clouds, cutting into the dull day.

**Author's Note:**

> Many one-shots to come forward as I think of them. I have something for Jaal/Ryder in the works, but I want to get everything written so I don't pseudo-abandon like I have done with all my other ones. Written within an hour and totally unedited. Also excuse if any of my tenses are past. This is one of my first works in present tense as it fit the story.


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